And so with the bones of the arm; they are connected to one another by ligaments; but to the trunk only by muscle, excepting at one end of the collar-bone.
"But this was a very significant fact.

Ligament decays much more slowly than muscle, so that in a body of which the muscles had largely decayed the bones might still be held together by ligament.

The peculiar grouping therefore suggested that the body had been partly reduced to a skeleton before it was dismembered; that it had then been merely pulled apart and not divided with a knife.
"This suggestion was remarkably confirmed by the total absence of knife-cuts or scratches.
"Then there was the fact that all the bones were quite free from adipocere.

Now, if an arm or a thigh should be deposited in water and left undisturbed to decay, it is certain that large masses of adipocere would be formed.

Probably more than half of the flesh would be converted into this substance.